Sunday, July 19, 2009

CHERRY BOMB

Just finished reading Cherry Bomb by J.A.Konrath and it was a real page turner.
Bad girl Alex Kork is back with more of her twisted games to torture our hero, Jack Daniels. If you like Serial Killers, Cops and lots of action buy this book. The imagery is vivid and might keep you up at night. Konrath has a real talent for wretching emotions from the reader. This read is like a roller coaster ride of tears, fear and edge of the seat screams. His writing will paint you such a vivid picture that you can't help but keep turning the pages.

The opening of this book will answer the cliffhanger at the end of Fuzzy Navel. Thank you Joe! It was totally unexpected. Brought tears to my eyes. They didn't last long though as we were dragged into the non-stop action.

Good read! I give it five stars! *****

Saturday, July 18, 2009

This man was a God


Amazing.
Bruce Lee played Ping Pong with his nunchuks. I wonder how long he had to practise to get that good in hitting the little ball with the chuks.
To liken this to writing I'd have to say it all comes down to practise. Every story we write, every novel we finish and shove under the bed to never see again is all part of the practise. If we didn't do it we'd never be able to hit the ball.

Now I'm imagining peeking under Stephen King's bed. I think it might be a little scary under there...

I may have to go dust off my nunchuks.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Draft # 5....


I'm on draft number five, no wait...four, no, it was five. Definitely draft number five. And I'm tired of reading and rereading the same old stuff. I want to move on! Its time for a new story, a new idea...but then I think I can read it once more and maybe find something else wrong in there. Maybe a missed word, misspelled word or a scene that just doesn't work so I plod along. Combing through the words I've just about memorized for any weird issues I didn't see in the last two million times I've read it. Is it ready to query? Can I improve anything before I send my baby out into the world?
How many drafts do you do? How do you know if you're done?
Is it ever really done?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Fear of the Jinx

How much do you tell about when you send your WIP in to the world? I mean, if you tell everyone about each query you send out are you jinxing it? I wonder if it's best to keep it on the QT and not share whats going where...but there are all these questions. I often bring chunks of my manuscript to work to play with on lunch or my breaks (okay sometimes when the boss isn't looking too--but hey! priorities!) so peeps there know I write and they are always asking questions about it.
It's kind of like being in a store with a newborn and all these strangers keep trying to put their germs on her...okay, not really exactly like that but you get the idea.
So how much do you tell? Do you believe in jinxes?

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Sons of Maxwell & United Airlines

Since I hate airlines I had to post this video. (I found it on Janet Reid's site-Thanks Janet!)
I've long felt that the airline biz is the biggest extortionists in the world. I mean, come on! Two people sitting right next to each other could spend hundreds more than each other. How is this legal??? They've got the country by the gonads and nobody does anything about it! We give them our luggage to take care of and when things are missing or broken it's up to them to decide it they want to give us restitution? Sheesh! Is there no law in the air?
Whew! Rant over. Please watch the video it's hysterical.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Crayons!


There is a blog called Crayons and it's awesome. Check it out.
There is another artist called Don Marco who does amazing stuff with Crayola Crayons. You can see his artwork here. I think I've blogged about him before.
So, I just had to buy a box of crayons and on this lazy day at work I did this:

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Cheerio's and Writers


Cheerio's is looking for people who write children's books. Wow, I don't write kid's books but if I did I never would have thought to query Cheerios.
http://www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com/registration_form/

Last Day of NANOWRIMO --- Oh No!

 Where did the month go?  Certainly not on the page. I have an outline, some character sketches but mostly I have a lot of research notes.  ...